Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/587

 SUN

SUP

SUM AGE, Sumagium, or Summagium, in our old writers,

toll for carriage on horfeback. Pro una equo portante fum-

magium per dimidium arm. obolum. Chart, de Fore/?, cap. 14.

Crojupt. Jurif. 191. Terms of Law. Blount, Cowel

EUMEN, a word ufed by fome anatomical writers to ex-

prefs the hypogaftrium. SUMMER (Cycl.) — It is faiJ, that a frofty winter produces a dry fummer ; and a mild winter a wet fummer. It often hap- pens fo, in fa& ; but why it mould be fo, is perhaps a queftion difficult to determine. The curious may, on this fubjecT:, confult the Philofophical' Tranfaiftions, N° 458. fea. to. Summer teak, in zoology, the name of a bird, the fmalleft of all the duck kind, called by Gefner the anas circias. See the article Circias. SUMP, in metallurgy, a round pit of ftone lined with clay within, for the receiving the metal on its firft fufion from the ore. Rays Words, p. 1 14. Sump, in the Englifh fait works, where fea water is boiled into fait, is ufed as the name of a fort of pond, which they make at fome fmall diftance from the faltern on the fea fhore, between full fea and low water mark. From this pond they lay a pipe, through which, when the fea is in, the water runs into a well adjoining to the faltern; and from this well they pump it into troughs, through which it is carried to their cifterns, in order to be ready to fupply the pans. See the article Salt. SUN (Cyd.) — Svn-fifi), mola, in ichthyology. See Tab. of Fifties, N° 27. and the article Mola.

One of thefe fifties, of five hundred weight, was taken fome years ago near Plymouth, and on boiling a piece of the flefh, to try how it would tafte, (as fome authors have de- fcribed it as a fine fifh for the table) it was found, inftead of a firm mafs, to be all converted, in a few minutes, into a perfect jelly, fo that it could not be taken out otherwife than with a fpoon. In colour and confiftence this jelly re- fembled boiled ftarch when cold, and had little or nothing of a fiftiy flavour, but a very agreeable tafte ; it ftuck firmly to the lips, however, and to the fingers, appearing very remarkably glutinous : and as the antients had no other glue than one made of fifh, this jelly was tried, as to its flicking quality, on leather, and on paper, and was found to anfwcr as well as common pafte; but by fome accident it was not tried upon wood.

It will be extremely worth while, on fome other opportu- nity, to try whether a true ichthyocolla may not be pre- pared, by boiling down this jelly. Philof. Tranf. N°456. p. 220. Sun-flower, corona foils, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower is of the radiated kind ; its difk is made up of flofcules, and its cuter edge of femiflofcules ; thefe ftand upon the embryo feeds, and are feparated from one another by little leaves of an imbricated figure, and contained in a fcaly hufk, or cup the embryos finally ripen into feeds, furnifhed with two little leaves.

The fpecies of fun-flower, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort. are thefe. r. The common great fun- flower. 2. The great branched fun-floiver. 3. The great fun-flower with greyifh white filiated feeds. 4. The perennial fun-flower with large flowers and large feeds. 5. The leiTer, or female fun-flower 6. The fmall-flowered_/H«-/foy(?r with tuberous roots. 7. Tht fmall - flowered fun-flower with long roots. 8. The talleft broad-leaved fin-flower. 9. The tall fun-flower with alated {talks. 10. The rapunculus-rooted corona foils. 11. The (mall- flowered large-leaved corona foils. 12. The throat- wort-leaved fun-flower with creeping roots. 13. Thegolden- rod-leaved very tall fun-flower. 14. The creeping narrow- leaved futi-flozuer with pale yellow flowers. 15. The wil- low-leaved fun-flower with alated ftalks. 16. The fhrubby American fun-flower with lychnis leaves, and yellow flowers. 17. The fhrubby American fun-flower with fpurge-Iaurel leaves, and yellow flowers. 18. The dwarf fea American fun-flower with flefhy three-pointed leaves, and yellow flow- ers. IQ« The fmall fun-flower with deeply jagged leaves. 20. The fun-fiotver with large jagged leaves. 21. The narrow-leaved funflower with jagged leaves. 22. The New England fun-flower with very large trifid leaves. Tourn. Inft. p. 489.

There are feveral different fpecies of this flower, all which are very beautiful in large gardens. They are moft of them annual plants, and are to be fown every fpring in a bed of good light earth. When the fhoots are about three inches high, they muft be tranfplanted into nurfery beds, and fet at eight inches diftance every way ; they fhould remain here till they are a foot high, and then be carefully taken up with a ball of earth at their roots, and planted in large borders, or intermixed in the bofquets of large growing plants ; they muft be frequently watered till they have taken root, and after that will require no farther care. In July the flowers appear, and ftand a confiderable time : the largeft of thefe fhould be left to ftand for feed. The bird: are very apt to devour this feed, but it fhould be carefully guarded from them, and the head left on the plant till Oc- Suppl. Vol. II.

tober, at which time it fhould be cut off, and hung up to dry in an airy place, and in a month more the feeds will be perfectly hardened. '

Several fpecies of this plant alfo are perennial, and increafe greatly by the root. Among thefe the common fmaller- flowered one is a very valuable plant in gardens^ as it re- quires no culture, Will grow in all foils and fituations, and is a very ornamental flower, continuing in bloom from June to Oclober. Miller's Gard. DicT Small Sus-flower. See Helianthemum. SuN-dezu. See Ros foils.

Sun -fcorched, a term ufed by our gardners in fome parts of England to exprefs a diftemperature of fruit trees, owing to the_yWs affedting them too forcibly and too fuddenly ; the confluence of which is the lofs and withering of the fruit. Such trees only are fubjecf to this, as are planted in places fheltered from the fpring fun, and only open to the fum- mer's ; and it may be always cured by proper waterings. Mr. Merret gives us an account of three cherry-trees^ of that kind we call May-dukes, which he cured in this manner. Thefe trees were planted in a very rich mould, which lay to a fouth wall, fhaded four months of the winter from the fun by a high building, fo that the fun never came upon them till the latter end of March ; when being high, and fhining fomewhat fiercely upon them, from that time the fruit had been always ufed to wither. In a very hot fum- mer, when thefe trees feemed going into a worfe way than ordinary, the roots of one of them was bared, and a hole being made about it, a gallon of water was poured into it every morning and evening for about a fortnight before the cherries came to a rednefs.

The effect of this was, that the fruit was full and good, while the two trees that flood next it had their fruit wither- ed and fcorched up. One of thefe was taken into confide- ration more late, and being watered from time to time, thofe fruits which were moft withered on it fell off, and the reft grew ripe of themfelves, and proved very good ones. The third tree, which was left to itfelf, produced not one ripe good cherry. Phil. Tranf. N° 23. SUNCOPULLY, in natural hiftory, a name given by the people of the Eaft-Indies to a kind of fparry fubftance of a whitifh colour, which they calcine, and afterwards give in agues, and other intermittent cafes.

It is erroneoufiy by fome fuppofed to be a fpecies of arfenic } for it has none of its qualities. SUONATA, in mufic. See Sonata, Cycl SUONAT1NA, or Sonatina, in the Italian mufic, a little,

fhort, eafy fonata. See Sonata, Cycl. SUPERBUS mufculus, a name given by fome to the elevator oculi, or the mufcle whofe office is to raife and lift up the eye ; that motion giving a haughty look. The fuperbus mufculus is one of the mufcles called by Al- binus the quatuor recli oculi. See Atollens. SUPERFICIAL (Cyd) — Superficial/W^w, in fortificati-. on, the fame with caijfon, which is a wooden cheft, or box, with three, four, five, or fix bombs in it. Sometimes it is filled only with powder, and ufed in fieges, by being buried under ground, with a train to it, to blow up any lodgment that the enemy may make. SUPERFICIALIS fphincler, in anatomy, a name given by Riolanus, and fome others, to the mufcle of the anus, called by Winflow and Albinus fphincler internus ani. This au- thor, and fome others, call it alfo fphincler cutaneus. SUPERFICIES {Cycl)— Internal Superficies of the earth, a term ufed by TuII, and others, to exprefs that part of the earth which affords the pabulum, or what is called the paflure of plants.

Plants themfelves are the pafture of animals ; but it is from this internal fuperficies of the earth that vegetables firft re- ceive the nourifhment which they afterwards give to animals. This inner fuperficies of the earth is the fuperficies of the pores, cavities, and interftices of the divided parts of the earth ; and thefe are of two kinds, natural and artificial. Tull is the firft who has ufed this term, and he justifies him- felf from the imputation of having ufed an abfurd phrafe, as it might at firft feem, the adjective exprefling fomething within, and the fubftantive fomething without, by obferv- ing, that though the vegetable pafture is within the earth, yet it is alfo on the outfides of tlie divided parts of the earth ,

Of the natural and artificial pafture of plants, or the natural and artificial cavities, pores, and interftices of the earth, the natural alone will fuffice to furhifh a country with ve- getables for the maintenance of a few inhabitants : but if the artificial, that is, if agriculture, the fole hufinefs of which is the making this artificial pafture for plants, were abolifhed out of the world, it is much to be feared, that the people of all populous countries, efpecially of thofe toward the borders of the frigid zones, (for there the trees often fail of producing fruit) would be reduced to the utmoft necefli- ties for want of this proper kind of food. The artificial pafture of plants is that inner fuperficies^ of the earth, which is made by dividing the foil by art. This, on all parts of the globe where it is ufed, maintains many more 3 Q_q q people